Laughter
by B00k Freak
Summary: May claims she stopped being ticklish. Coulson isn't so sure. Pure fluff.
1. Chapter 1

Phil Coulson wasn't sure what made him go to the gym. He had many reasons really. Skye was in her afternoon training session with May. He liked watching them both.

His office was not far from the gym, and he could often hear bits and pieces of their interactions. Mock battle cries, taunts, corrections, occasional laughter. Once or twice he could have sworn that it was May's laughter. Skye was rubbing off on her a bit. It was nice to see her opening up. She was smiling more easily, spending more time with the team, teasing him like she used to. She was happy. So, of course, so was he.

Skye had changed too. She was more serious, more driven. She had her moments of darkness, especially since she had started interrogating Ward. She was more confident too, in combat and in general. Her skills had increased immensely since she had began training with May, and anyone could see how much closer the two had become.

Coulson laughed at the sight that greeted him when he entered the gym.

May had pressed Skye into the mats, holding her arms down with her knees, and was mercilessly tickling the younger agent anywhere she could reach.

Skye, for her part, was struggling admirably through helpless fits of laughter and protests, but May had her well and truly pinned. "Give up?" She asked.

"N-nehehever!" Skye cried, squealing when May found a weak spot on her ribs.

"I thought that was cheating." Coulson said from the doorway, smiling widely.

May looked up from her squirming prey and narrowed her eyes. "She wouldn't give up, kept trying to kick me when I'd already won." She squeezed Skye's sides. "Just two words." She said, smiling almost as much as Skye.

Skye managed to get one hand free and tried to shove her away. "S-screhehew you!"

Coulson chuckled and May grinned. "Wrong two words."

Skye reached for Coulson but immediately clamped her arm to her side when May found another sweet spot. "Hehehelp!"

He pretended to think about it, deliberately ignoring Skye's halfhearted cries for assistance. "No," He said thoughtfully, "That's definitely cheating."

"Oh cohohome ohohon!" Skye giggled. May let up a little so that the girl could breathe, but the giggling continued as she tried to catch May's hands and escape, futilely. She glared playfully at her SO. "Ihihi'm gonna gehet you for this."

May smirked, poking the sweet spot on Skye's ribs and making her shriek before letting her up. "I'm not ticklish."

Coulson laughed from the doorway. "Yeah, and I'm not losing my hair."

May glared and Skye frowned.

"What?" He said. "I thought we were telling comforting lies."

May's glare intensified and Skye laughed incredulously. "What, seriously? No way."

She poked May's ribs but got no reaction beyond a raised eyebrow. May turned her attention to Coulson. "I told you I got rid of that."

"You did tell me that." He clearly didn't buy it.

May rolled her eyes and turned back to Skye, "Okay, try again." She said, taking up her stance.

Skye shook off the playful mood and raised her fists. This seemed like an old argument between the two. Which was kind of cute. Two highly trained government operatives arguing about whether or not one of them was ticklish. Even cuter if she was.

Coulson watched them for a few minutes, then left to continue his paperwork, a nostalgic smile touching his features. May _was _ticklish, at least she had been when they were partners. Fond memories surfaced of pranks taken a little too far ending with him catching her around the waist and refusing to release her until she cried 'uncle' between fits of laughter. Memories of sparring sessions ending with them both red-faced and panting for air but grinning like fools because maybe his knees were a weak spot. Memories of laughter and fun, of May smiling unguardedly and teasing him about nothing important.

The smile was still there hours later when May slipped silently through his door to his office. She was dressed in a black short sleeved shirt and jeans, and her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail. It was more casual than her old look. He liked it. "Hi."

Her smile was a welcome addition as well. "Hi. How was training?"

May glared, but the effect was ruined by the grin that he was willing to bet she couldn't remove. "Skye wouldn't stop poking me all afternoon. I hope you're happy."

Phil smothered a laugh, sitting up on his desk. "You're the one who started it with Skye, I just gave her a push in the right direction." May rolled her eyes and fell into the desk chair. "Why'd you get her like that anyway? You're not usually with the touchy feely stuff."

She shrugged. "Skye's been down lately. Overly serious since..." Ward. "She needed a break."

Phil was smiling in that smug way of his and she crossed her arms. "If you try to use that as an excuse I won't be held responsible for my actions."

He laughed. "What are you worried about? You're not ticklish any more, remember?"

Melinda grinned semi-sheepishly. She remembered messing around with Phil at the academy, laughing as his fingers elicited those squeal-inducing tingles up her sides, getting him back in kind until tears ran down his face. That was before though. After Bahrain she had done renovations of her body and mind, and being ticklish was one of the things that hadn't made the cut. The only thing she felt when Skye poked her was mild annoyance. She missed being that person sometimes, but she really had no choice.

She looked up and saw that now Phil was smiling at her in a very different way. In a loving, nostalgic, want-to-hold-you-and-never-let-go way.

May smiled too, eyes darting between him and anywhere else. She had never been very good with feelings, and even though they had been together for a few weeks now, it all still felt new.

Phil stood, leaning in for a kiss, and Melinda felt the tiny twinge of tension as her body registered that he was all but holding her down. Phil was the one person she was okay with doing that though. She could feel his smiling lips on hers and they broke apart both smiling, foreheads resting against each other. "Love you." He said.

Her eyes darted away and he gently raised her chin with one finger. "And I'm going to keep saying it until you believe me." He kissed her lightly. "Je t'aime." Kiss. "Ich liebe dich." Kiss. "Ti amo." Kiss. "Kocham cię." Lopsided grin, as if he knew how she would respond, "Wǒ ài nǐ."

May groaned and rolled her eyes. "Wǒ _ài _nǐ." She corrected, but snuck in some sincerity. "How is your Mandarin so terrible?"

Coulson smiled in a way that understood what she was doing. "Through no fault of yours. I think I picked up the swearing pretty fast when you and Natasha were sparring though."

"She's a challenge." Melinda was smiling.

He laughed softly. "You're the only one who can say that about her and have it be a compliment."

She shrugged. "It is. She held me down once."

"I'm holding you down now."

The next second she had him pressed against the desk, smirking.

Phil smiled dopily. "Wǒ ài nǐ." He tried again, hands coming up to rest on her hips.

"Closer."

"Believe me yet?"

He was only teasing but May still looked down momentarily. When she looked back up she was smiling. "Wǒ ài nǐ." She said, before capturing his lips in a deep kiss. It felt right.

Phil was surprised for a moment, but wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her closer. It was the first time Melinda had said that to him with no way out, no defence.

They broke apart breathing heavily. Coulson was grinning like an idiot. "Nǐ ài wǒ."

Melinda smiled tentatively and rested her head on his shoulder. "Nǐ ài wǒ." She mumbled.

"Yeah." He whispered, kissing a line down her cheek to her neck. When his lips touched just under her jawline, however, May drew a sharp breath, quickly cut off.

Coulson grinned into her neck. "What was that?"

Melinda said nothing. Honestly, she wasn't quite sure. She had a sinking feeling though. When she made no reply she felt Phil laugh softly, then continue to press feather light kisses to her neck.

May closed her eyes, bit her lip trying not to smile, and forced herself to stay still. So maybe she was still a little ticklish. But she would be damned if she would admit it.

Unfortunately, Phil seemed to know _exactly _what he was doing, zeroing in on the little places that made her twitch, and after not very long she was smiling wider than she had in years, as well as fighting hard to stop herself from scrunching up her neck.

May tried to keep her breathing steady, even though they both knew that there was no way she could win this game. She wasn't really trying to win though. She didn't often have an excuse to smile, especially not like this. Her breath caught in her throat when Phil found a weak spot at the base of her neck, near her collarbone. She felt him smile. Melinda's defences crumbled when he playfully nipped at the spot and she shoved his head away with a strange hiccupy noise. "Okay," She said, grinning hugely, her shoulders coming up to guard her neck. "You made your point."

Phil smiled. She looked so beautiful in that moment, but much better, she looked _happy. _Happy like he hadn't seen in years. She was glowing, and he was pretty sure he was too.

He pulled her into a kiss because he couldn't not. She was so damn beautiful when she smiled. "Don't tell Skye." She implored when they broke apart, before her smile had faded.

Phil laughed. "I don't know." He said, "Seems like the kind of thing she'd be interested in knowing."

"I mean it Phil." There was not even a single note of conviction in her voice.

He grinned. "Fine." He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and the other around her waist. "I won't tell her."

May smirked, her arms coming up around his neck. "Or email her." Damn. "Or write it down, or sign language it to her."

"I don't think Skye knows sign language."

Her eyes narrowed.

Phil just smiled. They both knew that he wasn't afraid of her. He relented anyway. "Okay." He sighed dramatically. "You win. Like always."

Melinda pressed her lips against his chastely. "Damn right."


	2. Chapter 2

**a.n. Okay, just letting you guys know that I'll probably be slowing down a bit on fics for a little while, since work is happening and I've got a lot of assessment to do for my masters. I like to write to vent and to relax, but my time to do those things is gonna be a bit limited for a few weeks.**

It was a nice thought, to wake up in someone else's arms. To fall asleep and wake in the warm embrace of the person you loved.

It was only ever a thought to Coulson and May.

The two were much to well trained to move very much in their sleep, much less unconsciously embrace each other. That said, both slept much better when the other was there, though they didn't feel the need to say so.

And there was definitely an appeal to waking up in a dozy comfort, rather than an adrenaline induced panic.

When Phil Coulson woke up to a presence cuddling up to him, he smiled. "Morning." He mumbled, feeling Melinda's head against his chest.

A tiny grin touched her lips, but she did not move, eyes closed and feigning sleep.

Phil smiled too and wrapped his arms around her, pulling Melinda closer to him. He really really loved this woman. "Love you." He mumbled into her hair.

She shifted slightly, settling more securely into the embrace. This was nice. This was the best she had felt in a long time.

"I really love you." Phil murmured again, and Melinda barely refrained from rolling her eyes. He loved saying that, and she was pretty sure it was at least partly because it made her blush. "Melinda," He sounded out every syllable of her name. "I love you."

"Oh would you shut up?" She grinned, opening her eyes to look up at him. "Some people are trying to sleep."

Phil gasped in mock offence. "Okay, fine, I'll be quiet, go to sleep." He assured, but both knew that sleep wasn't going to happen this late in the morning.

May was proved right when an arm wrapped around her shoulders in a sneaky embrace. "Phil..."

"Sssshhh, go back to sleep." She could hear the smile on his face.

Melinda knew that she could get out of this in half a second if she wanted to. But where was the fun in that? Instead she turned her head, trying to hide her face just as calloused fingers reached the spot behind her ear.

She bit down on her lip and buried her face in the pillow, smiling widely. Ever since Phil had found her ticklish spot he had been abusing it at any opportunity. Never in front of people, obviously, and he had learned the hard way that if he pushed her too hard, Melinda would turn the tables immediately.

Phil smiled. He loved this, he loved _her. _He loved seeing Melinda with her walls down, as close to laughter as he ever saw her. He loved that she was letting him do this, that she trusted him enough to let him get so close, to let him tease her like this. He was constantly amazed at how much of her remained after Bahrain, how she could still smile and love so much. One part of her he was sure had been lost was Melinda's playfulness, and Coulson had never been happier to be wrong.

"_Phil._" She murmured again, and he could hear the edge of laughter to her voice.

"Hmm?" He didn't stop.

Coulson managed to chase out a brief laugh before she rolled over and caught his wrist, smiling. He smiled back and leaned in for a kiss, feeling her upturned lips on his. This was perfect.

"I've got training." Less perfect.

"Do you have to?" He complained.

Melinda smiled, stretching like a cat. "Unless you want to go and explain to Skye why we're not sparring this morning, then yes, I have to."

Phil groaned. "Either way one of us has to get up. That's unacceptable."

Melinda pressed a chaste kiss against his lips, standing up. "I'll see you later."

"Not too much later, I hope." He said as she pulled on her workout clothes.

"We'll see." He loved the softness in her eyes.

"I love you." Phil said again as she approached the door.

Melinda smirked back at him. "I know." She said, half sincerely, half teasingly, closing the door before he could react.

Coulson groaned and rolled his eyes. Sure. _He _was the nerd. Melinda quoted Star Wars in intimate moments, but _he _was a dork. Whatever.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

One of the surprisingly many things that May and Skye shared was a love for sparring. Skye felt that every other aspect of her training was testing in a sparring match, and, unlike the slow repetition of the rest of her training, it really showed how far she had come. Even knowing that May was holding back didn't sour it for her. Sparring was solid, it was proof that she wasn't some helpless rookie anymore.

As weird at it was though, Skye had had some trouble actually fighting May at first. Intellectually she knew that there was no way she could hurt her SO, but trying still felt wrong. She didn't want to try to hurt May, but some part of her was scared that she might want to. It took a little while to get over, and to a degree she was still scared.

She was getting there though, Skye thought as she managed to take her SO to the ground, ending up with her hands around May's throat, ready to strangle.

"Good," May assented, relaxing, "But do you actually know how to strangle someone?"

Skye frowned. "What, there's meant to be some kind of method? Thought the idea was just-" She overexaggerated shaking May head back and forth. Not too hard though.

Melinda was grateful at her ability to hide her reaction, even if Skye's hands on her neck made her want to squirm. "Notice how I'm not suffocating." She said sarcastically. "To strangle someone you need to crush their windpipe, or at least constrict it." Her own hands came up to demonstrate. "Just pushing your thumbs down hard enough here," She showed. "Will do the trick, just be careful you don't break anything if you're only going for a knockout."

"Like this?" Skye tried to demonstrate, but in the shifting of her hands her nails flicked against May's neck, causing her control to falter, making her twitch and swallow a squeak.

Skye immediately retreated, practically falling over backwards in her hurry to get off her SO. "Sorry!" She cried, certain that she had somehow hurt her. "I didn't mean to! Are you okay?"

May rolled her eyes, standing up. "I'm fine Skye." Damnit, she shouldn't have reacted at all. "You just surprised me."

"_Surprised- _Oh." May did not like the smile that crept across Skye's face one bit. "You're ticklish."

May raised an eyebrow, but internally she was cursing herself. "No I'm not. We've been over this."

Skye smirked, crossing her arms. "You mean you denied it then wouldn't let me near you." It was true, they had quickly moved on to shooting practice and tai chi after Coulson had left.

May rolled her eyes. "There's more to training than sparring Skye."

"_Really _not the point." Her grin was positively predatory, and when she took a step forwards May barely stopped herself from backing up.

"Don't even think about it." She warned.

Skye laughed. "What, you just said you're not ticklish, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?"

May fixed her with a glare that had absolutely zero effect. "Stay away from me." Refusing to back away. This was Skye for Gods' sakes.

The hacker pounced at her SO, but ended up face flat on the ground less than two seconds later. Almost like she forgotten exactly who she was facing here. Skye glared, but her smile remained. "I'm gonna get you."

May rolled her eyes. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Skye grinned cheekily. She knew how to tell when May was being serious, and this was not serious. Her eyes narrowed and she paused, crouching, for a moment, before again flying at May, trying to take her to the ground.

It was a strange mix of sparring and playing, Skye thought, not quite _fighting, _just grappling for the upper hand. She couldn't quite keep a burst of laughter in and May took the opportunity to slam her student into the mats. A moment later Skye broke the hold, reversing their positions, ending up with May face first on the training mats with Skye's knee digging into her back.

"Skye-" Her speech was quickly interrupted with a sound that Skye would swear on her life was a squeak.

"Yeah?" She grinned, wiggling her fingers over May's neck, dissolving her defences.

"S-Skye!" She yelped in a scandalised voice, torn between pushing Skye away and pressing her face into the mats to hide her laughter.

Skye smiled. May was laughing. Properly laughing, practically giggling in her weak attempts to escape. An unusual sound, but a very welcome one. Her right arm was being held by her own body, and she batted weakly at Skye with her left, trying to scrunch up her shoulders in defence. It didn't work very well.

The hacker giggled at her SO's ineffective fighting. So there were two options, each as cute as the other. Option one, Melinda May's super secret, break glass in case of emergency weakness was that she was ticklish. Super cute. Option two, she was having as much fun with this game as Skye was, and maybe didn't want it to end just yet.

"Give up?" Skye grinned.

A moment later a hand clasped around her ankle, and before Skye could think _'oh crap' _she was pinned to the floor. She pulled at her arms, seeing how firmly she was held, and laughed nervously, getting the sense of deja vu. "I surrender?"

May was smiling wider than Skye had ever seen. She hadn't been convinced that May _could _smile with her teeth until that moment, but there was an evil glint in her eyes. "You wish."

May didn't release Skye until she couldn't breathe for laughing.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

"I hate you."

Coulson looked up from his paperwork to see his partner entering through the door. "I'm pretty sure you don't, actually."

May glared and crossed her arms as she reached his desk, but said nothing.

Phil could see a hint of something behind her usual facade. "What?"

It was definitely a smile, and it broke through despite Melinda's best efforts. "You told her."

It took Phil half a second to work out what exactly she was talking about, but when he did he laughed. Oh. "I didn't, I swear."

May leaned against the edge of his desk and raised an accusing eyebrow. "You like this." Smug bastard.

He shrugged. "So do you."

Melinda grinned sheepishly and looked away. Phil was right, as usual. She liked it when her friends didn't take her seriously, she liked that Skye felt free to play and tackle her to the ground without fearing any retribution. She liked being treated like a person, not some walking weapon.

May did have to admit that she could count on one hand the people she trusted enough to have the upper hand on her though, and Coulson and Skye were at the top of that list, closely followed by Simmons and Fitz.

She knew that Phil was aware of this, and he savoured it, which was proven when his hand closed around her wrist a moment later as he stood up. He was still smiling. "I didn't tell her."

May rolled her eyes, but leaned in for a kiss. She didn't really mind, even if Skye would never forget it.

Phil wrapped one arm around her back, pulling Melinda closer. "I love you." He mumbled softly.

"I love you." She said, but it felt strange. Melinda was a little jealous of how easy saying it came to Phil, while she was scared for reasons she couldn't work out. Putting up barriers of silence, glares, and language. It took real effort, even if some days it felt like holding it in was more of a challenge.

He smiled that lopsided grin and a second later found himself backed against his desk with Melinda's mouth on his. He laughed into the kiss and May glared, pulling away. "You think this is funny?" Teasing.

Coulson chuckled. "I just didn't notice you doing that." Flipping their positions.

Now she grinned. "I'm just that good."

"You are." Phil agreed, pressing another kiss to her lips. "Very very good." A short peck accompanied each word.

"Don't be a prude." Melinda scolded, pulling him in for a deeper kiss.

Neither knew exactly how long it had been, but they probably would have heard someone approaching if not so distracted. As it was, the sharp intake of breath indicated that they were not alone.

May and Coulson looked to the doorway, where a wide-eyed Skye was standing. "Oh my GOD! YES!"

May buried her face in Coulson's chest to hide her face. She could feel him shake with laughter. Neither said anything.

Skye was open-mouthed and staring, but at the same time looked like all her Christmases had come at once. "Th-this is the best thing _ever! _Oh my God, I love you guys!" May shot her a glare and she finally got a hold of herself. "I- I'm gonna give you some privacy." She snuck away with an extra bounce in her step.

"I hate you."

"You have to make your mind up Melinda, you're confusing me."

"Screw you."

"If you insist."


End file.
